Rogue Of The Week: The Japanese Government

A public-information meltdown.

The Rogue Desk doesn’t have a heart of stone. Our profound
good wishes go out to the people of Japan as they mourn the deaths of
at least 9,000 people in the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a
nuclear crisis.

Unfortunately, the same best wishes can’t be extended to the beleaguered Japanese government.

We normally reserve
our wrath for Rogues much closer to home. But for failing to talk
straight at a time when West Coast residents and others are living in
legitimate fear of radiation, we’re naming the government of Japan as this week’s Rogue.

As noted in a March 16 story in The New York Times,
the obfuscation began the day after the March 11 quake, when explosions
first rocked the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. But
authorities reported only “a big sound and white smoke,” saying the
matter was “under investigation.”

More detailed assessments were not soon forthcoming.

Instead, the
government relied on the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co.,
to provide updates, which the government passed on in an evasive,
mealy-mouthed fashion.

“We’ve been having to force information out of them,” the mayor of the Japanese town of Minamisoma told Reuters.

Hiro Ito, an
economics professor at Portland State University, was on sabbatical in
Tokyo when the earthquake hit. He says long-standing mistrust of the
government fueled the panic in Japan. “Even if the government were 100
percent clear about the information, people wouldn’t trust the
government anyway,” he says.

While the Japanese
government played coy, frightened Oregonians were cowering on our shores
waiting for a radioactive cloud to cross the Pacific.

True, leaders in this
country initially disseminated contradictory information as well.
Oregon health officials gave the all-clear, while the U.S. surgeon
general urged investing in iodine. The latest prognosis, from Energy
Secretary Steven Chu, on March 20, was that the United Statesfaced no danger.

A little more candor
from the Land of the Rising Sun would have allayed anxiety, rather than
create uncertainty whether citizens could believe anyone at all.

And
just to show we’re not entirely hard-hearted, we’d like to suggest one
way you can help the people of Japan—attend one of the From Oregon, With
Love benefit concerts (co-sponsored by WW) at the Aladdin Theater at 2 and 7 pm on Sunday, March 27, featuring Pink Martini and others. For info, go to wweek.com.